A Year and a Day
by ABprongslett
Summary: On a typical sunny evening, Sydney and Hopper go into the woods to relax and get some fresh air when something unexpected happens and Sydney is left distraught. Of course, Adrian, as always, comes to the rescue. One-shot, with the possibility of a sequel depending on the feedback of the readers. And why isn't Hopper considered a character on this site?


**A/N: Yes, I'm aware that I'm supposed to be updating my other story, Alchemist and the Moroi (read it if you haven't and leave a review!) but I started **_**and finished**_** writing this a long time ago in the back of my notebook which I use for college. You should know that I wrote this story fully during college hours (when we were given an hour almost every day for games/sports) and only edited and typed it at home.**

It was another sunny Friday evening in Palm Springs. I had decided to take shelter from the blistering heat by sitting in the shade of a big tree in one of the secluded parts of the woods in Amberwood. Having nothing better to do, I had brought along my baby…..er, _pet_ dragon, Hopper, who had silently pleaded with his big, golden, adorable eyes to be taken along.

I had been unable to resist and slipped him carefully into my messenger bag after first adding some boxes of food, a toy and a shawl for a cushion. After making sure he had enough ventilation, I had set out exploring the woods and come across this place. It was cool and there was a constant breeze blowing which felt heavenly on my sweaty face. I had let Hopper out and was currently entertaining myself by watching his antics with his favourite stress ball, my book lying forgotten to my side. Meanwhile, my mind wandered.

It had been almost a year since I had accepted my relationship with Adrian, meaning almost a year since Zoe had arrived at Amberwood. Adrian had been insisting that we go somewhere to holiday on the occasion of our one-year anniversary in around two weeks, claiming that Zoe would not be too suspicious if I told her that I was going out of town for the weekend to do a project for Miss. Terwilliger, and meet some Alchemist friends in the process.

It flashed through my mind that I was supposed to meet Adrian at his apartment after dropping off Jill and Eddie at Clarence's place for her feeding tomorrow. Adrian's turn to take care of Hopper until Jill's next feeding. During these trips, I usually spent some time with Adrian and Hopper, and Adrian liked to joke that we were a happy family.

Thinking of family brought me back to Zoe. To my surprise and delight, she had gradually grown comfortable around the vampires and was even very close to Jill and Angeline and had developed a brother-sister relationship with Eddie, though she was recently spending more and more time with Neil Raymond, who had joined our fake family at Amberwood shortly before she had.

It made me proud to see how much progress Zoe had made in trying to be a normal teenage girl. She had taken to reading and gushing about paranormal young adult romance books with Jill, which amused and surprised the rest of us. When her classes at Amberwood had begun, she had, by some twist of fate, been put in the in the independent study class I had with Miss. Terwilliger. She had not needed as much forcing and coercing as I had and with time, she had grown interested in the spell books and she was now a full-fledged witch like me.

We had not heard of or from Alicia since the night Miss. Terwilliger's house had burnt down. The coven had assumed that she had used a very challenging spell to transport herself magically to some far-off distance, which had taken a great toll on even a powerful witch like her. They told me that all the injuries I had inflicted upon her had not really helped either.

I remembered the day when Miss. Terwilliger had pulled me aside and told me that Zoe was as powerful a witch as me, if not more. All the three of us were now covertly looking up the Sage family tree and history.

My relationship with Adrian had also progressed smoothly from the day we kissed at Malibu and we were more in love than ever. Even now, there were so many aspects of Adrian that surprised me, and I had come to realize that knowing Adrian Ivashkov would never get old.

Though Zoe knew that Adrian and I were very close, she did not comprehend the true extent of our relationship yet and I hoped that she was now open enough to understand if I told her exactly _how_ close Adrian and I were.

So, it was in this happy mood that I watched Hopper play. Abruptly, he stopped playing and ran to me. He bowed his head and his body began to shimmer. Alarmed, I scooped him up in my hands but had to set him back on the ground immediately as his body grew too hot to touch.

"Hopper? Hopper!" I cried out.

My cries and shouts were in vain as his body began to shoot out sparks and shimmered more brightly. There was a bright flash of light which momentarily blinded me and when I could see again I found only a small quartz crystal where Hopper had been. I fleetingly remembered the day Adrian and I had first summoned Hopper.

Exactly a year and a day ago. Hopper was gone for ever.

I began to sob. Without giving it a second thought, I dug my phone out of my bag and with trembling fingers, dialled Adrian's number.

"Hey, Sage! Miss me already?" I could picture his smirk.

"A-A-Adrian!" I choked on my words.

"Sage, what's wrong?"

"Hop-Hop-Hopper! He's _gone_!"

"Did he escape from his aquarium again, Sage? Because you need to-"

"No! He's _gone_! As in, disappeared. Adrian, it's been a year and a day since we summoned him. Remember the words-'You may summon and banish it at will for a year and a day'? he was playing with his favourite ball-you know, the yellow one with green polka dots we bought for him the second time we went to Malibu?- and he suddenly he started shimmering and growing hot and-and-and he melted and turned back into a crystal! Oh, Adrian, I think he's de-"

"No, Sage, don't say it!" Adrian, who had been quiet the entire time I had been rambling, suddenly interrupted.

"Not saying it won't make it any less true," I replied miserably, trying to stifle my sobs.

"Just hold on for a few minutes more, Sage. You're gonna be alright," he said firmly. He may have tried to hide it, but I could hear the sorrow in his voice.

"Okay," I sounded resigned and exhausted even to my own ears.

"Just stay put, okay?"

"Okay," I said again.

He hung up without any further words. I stared blankly at the crystal that used to be Hopper and was overwhelmed by memories.

Hopper first being summoned, Adrian and I debating whether to run away from him or not, Hopper saving my life from Alicia, Hopper looking adoringly at me from inside the aquarium and wagging his tail, Hopper playing with Jill, Hopper clambering all over Adrian and me when we hung out at his apartment, Hopper jumping on his 'father', ecstatic to see him after a week….

Before I knew it, I began crying again and I lay down on the grass, hugging the crystal to my chest, and fell asleep, crying.

I was gently shaken awake soon. When I opened my eyes, I was shocked to see Adrian crouching in front of me, with a sad smile on his face.

"Come on, let's go,"

"Where?"

He wordlessly held out his hand to me and helped me up. Still shocked at Adrian's appearance, I watched in a daze of sorts as he packed my things back into my bag.

When he reached the crystal that had rolled on to the ground when I was asleep, he gently picked it up and held it his palms, staring at it sadly before sniffing a little and carefully wrapping it in a tissue before tucking it into his jeans' pocket. His eyes were red when he finally looked at me.

He held my hand and led me back to the dorm. Jill met us there at the door and looked like she had been crying and was still trying to hold back her tears. When she saw us, he ran towards us and threw her arms around the both of us. We hugged her back and we stood there for a few seconds in that awkward group hug.

When we separated, Jill looked at Adrian and nodded, wiping her tears. I realized belatedly that Adrian must have been communicating with Jill through their bond.

Jill grabbed my hand and pulled me towards my dorm room while Adrian walked towards Mrs Weathers who had been watching the whole exchange with concern.

Once in my room, Jill made me sit on my bed and began chattering away as she bustled busily around my room, opening closets and drawers. I could only catch a few names in the onslaught of words, including those of Eddie, Zoe and some of our other classmates, but I couldn't concentrate because I was too occupied in examining Hopper's aquarium.

There was a small piece of his favourite Coconut Cream pie from last night's dinner lying in one corner. My old shawl, now slightly worn, lay crumpled near Hopper's 'play area', which was what we called the part of the aquarium housing all the toys that Adrian and I had bought for him in every place we visited together.

Soon, Jill again led me back to the lobby where Adrian was waiting for me along with Mrs Weathers. Adrian took a bag from Jill which I hadn't noticed she was carrying. Mrs Weathers patted my shoulder comfortingly and told me to care. Adrian put his arm around my shoulder and steered me to the parking lot. In his car, I finally came slightly to my senses and frowned.

"Adrian, what's going on?"

"Well, sis, you have just been through a very traumatic break-up and you need to spend some quality time with your dear brother in his apartment for the weekend to recuperate."

"Adrian!"

It was then that I comprehended the rest of his sentence.

"I'm going to stay with you? The whole weekend, just you and me?"

"Anything wrong with that?" He raised his eyebrows.

I mutely shook my head and not much else was said until we reached his apartment.

Once he parked his car, I asked him what we were going to tell Zoe.

"Oh, Jill will make up something. She's getting good at those kinds of things," he said proudly.

I sighed and got out of the car. He took my bag from the back seat and for once, I let him. I didn't have the energy to fight anymore.

I entered his apartment and promptly sank down onto the sofa and buried my face in my hands, pulling up my legs and rested my elbows on my knees.

I felt Adrian sitting next to me and hugging me to his chest. I clutched his shirt and we both started to cry, refusing to let go of each other.

There was no romance in the gesture, just two people mourning the loss of a loved one and trying to comfort each other.

We must have sobbed together for almost an hour without a break. Later, we just lay together on the sofa, limbs tangled, and thinking.

"Adrian, is something like this going to happen each time I feel happy? First, after that amazing day at Malibu, I got to the dorm to find Zoe there, an Alchemist!

Remember, we barely saw each other those first two months? And now, when I finally began to think Zoe could accept our relationship and actually feel happy for us, and we wouldn't have to sneak around as much, Hopper just…. I don't know, _evaporates_!

Is it wrong for me to be happy? What if, the next time I feel happy something happens to someone else? Someone I've known for longer than a year?"

Adrian took my face in his hands and said, "Listen to me, Sage. You are the most goddamn wonderful person on the planet. I know you deserve more, and so should you.

You're going to go to college and study architecture and anything and everything else you want to study. We're going to build a big, beautiful house that you'll design and you're going to move in with me.

I'll pick you up from college every day and we'll come home and make out and I'll paint you as you do your homework. Then one day I'm going to surprise you and ask you to marry me and you'll say yes without thinking even once what the Alchemists will do or the society will say. We'll get married on the beach or in a hill station or even a library if that's what you want.

I'll take you to Rome and Greece and Italy for our honeymoon and you're going to be the happiest person on earth, after me of course, and no one can stop you.

Yes, Hopper was like our baby, we loved him a lot and we're going to miss him like hell. He had a short life and he couldn't spend much time with the both of us together.

But someday, Sydney, we're gonna have a ton of kids of own and we're gonna raise them together and they'll be prim, proper troublemakers. They're going to be a mix of you and me and they'll be the hottest kids on the planet, if I do say so myself. They'll call us Momma and Daddy and tell you that you're the coolest mom ever. And they'll love me, of course. Because I'm going to be the most awesome dad and best husband in the world." He took a deep breath.

He had spoken with so much conviction and determination, it was impossible to not believe him. He spoke as if he had already seen the future and was merely stating the facts.

I smiled and patted his cheek before wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him closer.

"For the record, I want to get married in a museum in Malibu," I said, and kissed him.

As it turned out, I was fully prepared to stay with Adrian for the weekend. The bag I had seen Adrian take from Jill at the dorm was actually full of my things, including clothes and toiletries. Jill had thoughtfully even packed a set of my Amberwood uniform so that I could even return there on Monday morning and go directly to class.

That night, as Adrian and I cuddled together on his bed, I built up enough to ask him a question that had been burning in my mind ever since his passionate speech had been given in the evening.

"Adrian, did you really mean what you said? I mean, about asking me to marry you?"

Adrian's grip on me tightened, and he replied, "Of course, Sage. Do you really think I'd let go of you that easily after going through so much trouble to just get you to go out with me?"

We both laughed and I let the matter rest.

The next morning I woke up before Adrian and didn't feel like going back to sleep. I decided that I felt much better than I had last night, though I didn't miss Hopper any less. Not wanting to disturb Adrian, I carefully untangled myself from his arms and the sheets, got out of the bed and came to the living room and heading towards the kitchen to make myself a nice cup of coffee. I spotted my purse on a chair and remembered that I might as well call Miss Terwilliger and tell her that I was staying with Adrian for the weekend and couldn't meet her and Zoe to discuss magical developments and advanced spells, and also let her know about Hopper's sad demise.

She surprised me by revealing that she already knew about my whereabouts. When I told her about Hopper, she remained nonchalant.

"Oh, it's been a year and a day already? Well, I must say, time does fly rather quickly, don't you think?"

"Uh…yes, ma'am"

"Why, Miss Melbourne, you sound upset!"

"Of course I'm upset, ma'am. My callistana was banished and I loved him!"

"You miss him?"

"_Yes!_" This lady was getting on my nerves. I had better things to do than sit by as she examined my feelings about my pet's death.

"Well, aren't you going to do something about it?" My teacher was not one to give up that easily. I should have known.

"I don't know what to do! What's _there_ to do?"

"Summon him back, obviously."

"_What?!_"

"Miss Melbourne, I thought you knew. It's only the _spell_ that lasts a year and a day. All you have to do is cast the spell again, and your callistana will return to you, as good as new."

The only reply she got for a few seconds was silence.

And then: "_ADRIAAAAAAAAN!" _

**A/N: And that's it. For now, of course. **

**And I swear, I am really, really, REALLY sorry for the delay. I'm working on Alchemist and the Moroi, honestly. I can't make any promises, but I'll try to update by tonight (it's presently around 2:30 p.m. here) **

**Love you guys!**

**Oh, and this was supposed to be a gift for my best friend for her birthday (which was nearly a month ago) and since I missed the deadline, I got lazy and could only now finish typing it. SURPRISE, BFF! Call me after you read and review this, and tell me what you thought! ;)**

**Leave me tons of reviews as a reward and I'll try to update soon in return. And by the way, someone please tell me if they want a sequel to this and I'll sort it out with my best friend (probably in our Physics or Maths class in college, haha).**


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